Behind the Scenes at NBC Peacock Productions

Marc Weinstock, director, technical operations with NBCUniversal, assesses camera angles in advance of Wallendas canyon walk.

NEW YORK Attentive viewers of the recent Nik Wallenda-Grand Canyon highwire walk may have noticed something odd. The highly touted Discovery Channel media special, which attracted 13 million cable viewers and millions more via the Internet worldwide, was not produced by Discovery; it was instead produced by NBC.

Specifically, it was produced by NBC Peacock Productions, one of the four major broadcast networks' stealth production operations: in-house divisions that quietly produce significant amounts of programming both for their home networks as well as for seemingly competitive broadcast and cable operations. The NBC unit, according to Sharon Scott, Peacock Productions' executive producer/general manager, is an internal, nonfiction production company attached to NBC News that generally operates independently of the needs of NBCUniversal (NBCU). It has a staff of roughly 170 people.

We're certainly a successful production company, Scott said with a laugh. Could we be a little more loud about who we are? Of course, and I'm happy that Wallenda is giving us that opportunity.

Peacock Productions Excellent Nik Wallenda Adventure

NEW YORK Skywire Live, Nik Wallenda's epic 22 minutes, 53-second quarter-mile wire walk across a remote section of the Grand Canyon on June 23, televised on the Discovery Channel and out to the Internet worldwide, was a high-wire success for everyone involved, but it was hardly a cakewalk to produce.

Bringing the show to air was a year in the making, from Peacock Productions executive producer Gretchen Eisele's initial meetings with Discovery Channel executives to actual production. Our ambitious pitch to Discovery came out as we envisioned it, Eisele said. We made magic. It was stunningly beautiful and technically flawless.

Setting up the live shoot required the work of 150 people on site in Arizona on a location so remote that a one-lane three-quarter-mile gravel road was built from the nearest highway to the production site. Negotiations with the Navaho Nation's environmental experts two endangered species were threatened by the road had lawyers working overtime, according to Marc Weinstock, NBCUniversal director of technical operations whose facilities worked with NBC's in-house Peacock Productions on the project.

In addition to the production truck (from All Mobile Video) and other vehicles assembled on site, a separate mobile cell service provider vehicle was required to make local cell service even remotely possible. To provision Wallenda's starting point a free-standing rock peninsula dubbed the island a Bell helicopter was required to deliver every piece of gear including the two-inch, 2,300-foot-long two-ton steel cable Wallenda used for his epic walk. To set up a point of view at the bottom of the canyon, workers repelled down a 1,500-foot canyon wall with a fiber-optic cable to attach to the camera.

Broadcast Sports Inc. (BSI) developed the sports rig worn by Wallenda with Wallenda's input. Every facet needed to be custom-designed including the two live cameras he wore as well as aerodynamic hand-sewn pockets for the antennas to lessen the effects of wind during his walk. In all, 19 cameras were used, most of them Sony HDC-2500 multi-format cameras. One helicopter sported a Cineflex gyro-stabilized camera during the shoot; a second helicopter shot live with a hand-held camera. Wallenda's two point of view camera focused on the horizon ahead the end of his walk and the other pointed straight down at his feet, and to the steep canyon bottom below.

LINK:	http://www.tvtechnology.com/news/0110/behind-the-scenes-at-nbc-peacock...
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